Who We Are

Participants

Participants at Fir Acres represent a range of backgrounds. Fir Acres attendees come from throughout the U.S. and overseas. Over the last three years, we have welcomed students from 15-22 states and three foreign countries.

Since 1989, our first year, we have welcomed participants from:

• the far west (Oregon, Washington, California, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Alaska, and Hawaii);
• the southwest (Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah);
• the southeast (Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, South Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia);
• the central states (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, and Wisconsin);
• the east (Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont);
• and from Portugal, Taiwan and Indonesia.

Faculty and Residential Staff

Workshop leaders are chosen as exceptional practitioners of the art of teaching. They collaborate with Fir Acres participants rather than privileging themselves as “leaders” at the expense of students' own inquiry and authority.

Faculty select an array of engaging texts each year to challenge and stimulate writing, discussion, and collaborative learning. Materials are used to spark conversations in our workshop groups, and to encourage participants to exercise their own authority to read, understand, and respond.

The Fir Acres philosophy views writing as a "habit of mind". Faculty teach writing strategies for a range of habits of mind, including narrative, poetry, analysis, reflection, and experimental writing. These strategies are valuable for further high school and college classes, and participants' future independent lives.

All Fir Acres faculty have studied at or served as Associates to the Bard Institute for Writing & Thinking. Each is committed to writing in his or her own way, from a range of disciplinary backgrounds. The faculty includes:

Robert Whittemore, Director
Ann Staley
Bernard Greenwald
Diane Nowicki
Jess Lamb
Jessie Singer
Harriet Wingard
Sharyn Layfield
Elizabeth Beverly
Alfie Guy
Katrina Roberts
Glynis Benbow-Niemier
Ranny Bledsoe
Lynn Hammond
Pat Sharpe